A Mama just trying to survive life and school!

Month: November 2016

This project was not as hard as I pictured it because I had already done the work previously. I started with looking at my previous layout from 7A I looked at it and decided that I needed to simplify my layout so with the sketch I made modifications in the Shape Map . I was able to add pictures and then go from there, when making the Map I was able to see that I didn’t need as many pictures and didn’t needed to add as much. It is very simple but I felt that it looked nice I was going to add color because I wanted the color pop but in my critiques was told that the way I had it was better. Here the working final project.

My first decision in making this layout was selecting just one thing to focus on since there was so many to chose from. I decided to make my website on the same subject that I used on my collage but used another brand that my daughter enjoys (I really like them so I buy them for her because I cant buy them for myself 🙂 ) I chose Calico Critters because it was something that everyone could enjoy. Whether it be children wanting to play with them, parents having to look them up, adults looking them up because they were buying gifts, this really aimed to target everyone young or older.

I chose my subject I needed a sketch so I went online to look at various website that I enjoy to grab inspiration on how I wanted my site to look. Once I decided how I wanted it to look I then begin making the wireframe. While making the mock I was able to take things out and simplify the design. I was able to use pictures and the logo that represent the company and tried to use the same kind of picture with white background so that it would look consistent.

I received a critique from Sister Larson this week and she made many recommendations that I used. She first wanted me to unify the header and take out a square I had in the middle and make it uniform with the line dividers I had. She said I should take out image boxes that were distracting and didn’t go so I did and found a logo that had the quotes in the picture already. I took out the wallpaper from behind the logo as I was simplifying. I took out the busy pictures so that it would be easier to read the text also.

Oh how I cried over this project! In hindsight it was fun but boy did the work kill me. I feel that I tried my hardest in this assignment but was not impressed with my work. Blending was super hard, the exercise we did helped but in no way close to where I wanted my project to look. I over guessed everything and was super embarrassed about putting my face on a poster and have to show it in class. The editing was not as bad I think I got the handle of it but the blending was the worst! I kept going over and over with the brush, trying different opacity and different brushes and was unsuccessful in my try but I was able to put something together. I changed the picture I originally used because it was my favorite out of the 2. I hope you all can enjoy and laugh at my version of a shopaholic!

The task was describing myself into a movie because there are so many but I decided on one which was: Confessions of a shopaholic . I had a problem to as many of us might have with purchasing and some might differ with what they spend but it all the same, spending sometimes out of control. When I was younger in my 20’s I actually went crazy and bought things and didn’t think twice about the debt I was creating. I am still working to pay all that money off but my message in this project was to see a shopaholic’s perspective in a funny comedy you could laugh it, since debt is really no laughing matter.

The audience I was trying to reach was in fact everyone that has ever felt the way she did. Confused or oblivious to how credit works and that in fact you have to pay the money back! Or if you just wanted to laugh at how some may react when they think that credit is free money. It truly is a serious matter but this was a very fun way to look at debt and trying to pay it off.

My Critique:

Jesus ArredondoHI Erika I like your movie poster There are few thing I would change here one would be th glow on the face of the personagge and the other would be to move the first 2 lines of text to a lower place so there is some margin for those words

Leah BashamHi, Erika. Great choice of movie! 🙂 I think you’re headed in the right direction. My suggestion would try to rotate your face a little on the poster. The part in the actress’ hair is actually a side part. On your poster it looks like a middle part. You may not get it to be an perfect side part, but it should help a little with the positioning of the head – might make it a little more natural looking. You may even be able to make the head a tad bit small this way depending on how the jaw lines align. Also, work with the blending tool on a layer mask to help blend the edges a little more. I’m excited to see your final project!

I had good critiques for this project and am grateful for the input as I knew I needed tremendous help with this project. Jesus suggested that I change the font position and I did because I saw that he was right and also that my face had a lot of help too. Sister Larson explained color match which I used but don’t think it helped because of original actress and myself were two different colors something I didn’t take into account. I aligned my text and think I did a better job putting my title and other typeface together. Everyone’s consensus was that I fit my head, I tried blending, repositioning, image refining and nothing I still had stubble.

This was very overwhelming at least for me because I have no experience prior to using Photoshop and almost wanted to give up because I felt so inadequate in this project. After feeling this way for a couple of days I decided to stop with the negatively and start with your creativity and see where this possibly take me! Without giving it away, my subject was a happily married couple. Please enjoy!

This picture was taken of the happy couple during their photo shoot. They were positioned in their gazebo and Mrs. Whoswho was looking away while we snapped her profile while Mr. Whoswho was looking into the camera.

Here we have a different angle and I was trying to sneak up on Mrs. Whoswhos but she caught me and I managed to catch half of her face. I also caught Mr. Whoswhos profile in this picture.

The happy couple wanted to start with us taking a picture in front of their home from a higher level, and we have more of those poses in the post.

The couple wanted to showcase their home so they wanted to pose in front of their slide and window to illustrate the beautiful finishes to the house like the window and slide, because who doesn’t need a slide in their own home!

They couple choose to pose in the home and wanted the whole house to be shown because they were very proud of what they have achieved and how beautiful it is. It has swings, a ladder, a lounge chair, and they maintain flowers all long the home.

The couple wanted people to see their favorite spot in the house, the bridge because this is where they looked at the sky together, talk, and like to be at night. you can see here that they like to hold hands as they spend time outside.

My Process:

So like I mentioned in the beginning this project was a real undertaking for me because I have absolutely no experience in design so I wanted to cry and just call it quits, but after much debiting with myself I decided to try my best and try to learn from this experience.

I decided to choose my daughters toys because they are technically mine. These toys are called Woodzeez and I am in love but because it would be weird if they were mine I started buying them for my daughter but knew they were for me and the Family I wanted the most was the WhosWhos. I think the Owl and name just made it super cute so knew I wanted to use them as my subject. They have 2 children but wanted to capture what my version of a happy couple is because to me they are. I wanted to shoot them with their home for many reasons: the treehouse is beautiful, it had many places I could shoot, it could show how the couple lives having flowers and furniture they enjoy, and because shooting in their home would make them look more loving at least I think. I did take many angles and perspectives and I hope I was able to get that across. I did close up and far away, natural light, night time, flash, and house light. I took aerial and looking up at them. I did side posses and even made them seem as if they were trying to take selfie. In the end I had fun during the Photoshoot it give me a chance to get my creative side out.

This is the Photo I blended, It was my favorite so I wanted to use it over again. She looks like she is taking a selfie so its just cute to me. I wasn’t able to blend it with the instructions I was given in vital information so I was blessed that my son (7th grade) is using photoshop in his graphic design class and was able to show me how he does it. I hope I hit the mark but either way I attempted it and gave it the old college try!

Jesus Arredondo Erika I think your collage is very creative I liked the focus effect on some of the pictures my favorite was the the one in the upper right cortner. One of the things I would change would be the alignment of the WHOSWHOS word since there is a small overlap with the image and would make the color of the font stronger to create more contrast between the letters and the background
The images are great

Heather SimpsonSuper cute subject. I like them! The top left picture looks squished. The contrast of the type color and the background makes it hard to read. Also, the bottom of ‘whoswhos’ doesn’t sit on the top edge of the picture below, but the other words sit on top of the picture. Does that make sense? It is just an alignment matter. Easy fix. I would tone down the pink a bit, event though it matches her dress, or even pick a different color all together for the background. In my opinion, your pictures make the owls come alive. They have little personalities now. I love the top right one, it makes me think that he has discovered me watching them in their little house. Sorry if this came across as blunt. I just wanted to help critique, but don’t have a lot of time. I think you are on the right track, with only a couple changes to make. It is adorable.

I knew I needed help so I was grateful for the suggestions and advice. Jesus suggested that I align the text better and change the colors of font and to make it pop more. I did and changed the whole color background and color of the font, changed the font type to make it more pleasing as I could see where it was hard to read and how the colors were not clashing, still using the eyedropper to use the color in the photos. Heather suggested the same and that I maybe change the background so I did because it was hot pink which was very loud.

Like every assignment we are getting for this course at least for me they have been very difficult especially photography! Others in my family are responsible for taking pictures because mine usually come out blurry. This assignment forced me to take photographs in hopes that I learn about lighting, focus, and composition. I took many photos but think that the photos above were my best work. To me I thought that the originals looked good but took the suggestion of Sister Larson and used Light Room. I used the Detail, Tone Curve, and Basic for all photos to want I thought looked pleasing to the eye.

For Light I went with the picture of the park in the afternoon approaching the evening so you can start to see that the sun would start to set. Since the sunset was due to set at 5:58pm I decided to go about 5:30 to get me shot. I walked up the hill so that I could have a view of the park and of the sky. For indoor light I decided to use my daughters toys and used natural light versus dim or electrical light. I used Sophia’s toys to make a family portrait outside of their tree house and took it from a distance to make sure that I got the whole scene.

Focus had me a bit confused because I didn’t know how far was far but tried it anyways. I thought it would be cute to photograph an owl couple away from each other. In Foreground I used spot metering and held down to focus and took the picture and I could see the difference the girl owl and boy one. In background I did the same thing and used spot metering and focus and the front owl. I could see all the details in his shirt and stitched in button it look sharp.

Composition was the hardest of all because I had to learn about the rule of thirds and what lead room was. I used a lines when I told Sophia to sit and the curb because it was a straight line. I also had tress and an electrical box in the picture that served as lines behind her. Lead room was fun for me because I got to photograph Sophia in my favorite state of hers, happy. I told her to look at Dad who was standing away from us but had to do it quick because she probably couldn’t not hold that pose for very long.

This assignment has taught me about the different element that go into clicking to take a photo. Some of my pictures I don’t think had the best lightning because I was just snapping instead of realizing that I have to utilize lighting as it can be your friend in this process. Eye-opening that everything even a picture has a method and process to it for it to be beautiful.

Company: Helloitsmesmile – Tumblr BlogObjective: Create buzz about my blog and have people follow it through creating a Fan page on Facebook with the information to the Tumblr Blog..Strategy: I want others to benefit from my blog’s content so I created a hashtag #inspiredtosmile to start media buzz for more followers.

I hope viewing fan page images and content for Helloitsmesmilethis will give you an understanding of what this blog has and how it should be followed for the information listed below, after reading this I hope you will follow and enjoy the blog and my efforts and brightening up your days.

I started this blog on Tumblr for this class. It’s called Helloitsmesmile and it focuses on inspiring along with spreading the Gospel through quotes that uplift from Prophets and others who bring Positivity into our lives. A while ago, I was on my Instagram and saw that there were a lot of pages dedicated to uplift, make us think and reflect, make us smile. For me most of those were LDS based but in thinking about this project I didn’t see as much pages as these on Tumblr. They have some but I wanted to get involved in helping others smile or peak their interest in a quote that was church based in hopes that they will be curious to read the articles, thus drawing them in and letting see how loved they are.

I was inactive in the church for many years but my mom daily sent me a text message every morning for about 6 years, that didn’t get me back to Church but it did help grow my knowledge and fueled that fire that felt dim at times. I decided that I want to be someone who can uplift even if I don’t know you personally. Making a blog page on Tumblr would encourage me to have to be more insightful and read my articles and talk by the Prophets so that I could be a positive influence for all that read or see my posts.

My post consists of a beautiful picture and a quote or scripture. I know inspiration doesn’t only come from the Church so I post quotes from other people that can uplift as well. Good messages that help me smile is what I like to use. Creating for me is a challenge but is something I look forward to because I want to show my love for the gospel and for Jesus Christ. My strategy is still growing daily because I have not had anyone follow me yet. I have had likes but no followers and I want to change that. I’m learning how to hashtag and as I post I try to add hashtag that I want to promote my work.

The message of my blog is to inspire us to be different and more Christ-like or just in a good person with positive vibes, if religion isn’t your focus. I want people be happy when they read it, see the content, and share with others the positivity it brings to start a movement of love and kindness to everyone.

I am aiming to target everyone! Meaning children, teens, young adults, adult, and the elderly. This is for everyone there is no age boundary on being a good person and having a good outlook on life.

I added the posts that I have created with pictures that relate what the quote is describing and use quotes from church leaders along with people who are positive, this can be anyone. I like to share for Non-members who can peak their interest in the church through quotes but also just things that truly can make us smile in a time of darkness we are currently living in.

Elizabeth McDonaldHi Erika. Great theme, by the way. I love the images and positive messages. I also love the hashtag #inspiredtosmile. I am a little confused about what was required for this lesson. Were we supposed to have a business we are representing? If not, then from what I can tell, this is perfect. Great job!

Cristiano TrindadeHey Erika… I loved your theme and your pictures. The theme is really relevant nowadays so if you are doing this for real, congratulations. The pictures are also motivating which goes along with your message. If I had to change anything, would be font a little bit so it would be a little easier to read. Other than that, awesome job!

I received really good critiques from everyone. My previous infographic was seen by Jolene, Megan, Leslie, Pollyanna, and Sister Larson and they advised me about fixing my grammatical errors, so that was the first thing I looked over and fixed. I then had a suggestion from Sister Larson and decided to go with option B instead of infographic. I kept the content of images because they were in fact something I created I used pictures and added the text so that they could be inspirational and it was indeed created by me but I pulled pictures and quotes from different sources and cited the sources in the picture itself. Both Elizabeth and Cristiano liked my idea for the content I post and a suggestion from Cristiano was to change the font to read a bit clearer. I didn’t change it because I had already posted it but going forward will make sure that it easy to read.

I critiqued : Jolene Bullock and Elizabeth McDonald (first post that was deleted)